European Studies Summer School 2005

Group project:

External Affairs of the European Union

Project convenor: Dr Karis Muller

Group participants:

Renata Zanetti
Evan Jones
Sam Riordan
Claire Carpenter
Alexander Mackey
Deep Bajaj

Project outline:

The EEC (the predecessor of the European Union) did not at first envisage a coordinated approach to foreign affairs, in part because earlier attempts to do so had failed. However since the 1970s the EEC/EU has been gradually developing in this direction, culminating in the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP).  Since this has been beset with problems, the European Constitutional Treaty sought a major reform, which has stalled since its rejection this year by two founder states.

In the early 1950s hopes for a concerted European foreign policy had been fuelled by perceptions of a common external threat, that of communism.  The source of the threat in turn partly dictated which parts of the world were considered essential strategic buffer zones.  Maps of the time will help us to identify which areas were considered of strategic importance in those days, and why. 

Turning to the present, we ask next which areas are considered of strategic importance today, and why. Can we say that fears of unrest at the borders of the EU still drive aspects of EU foreign policy today? If so, must we reject assertions that it is the absence of any major external threat that may account for growing disaffection with the European project in many countries?

Students will be invited to comment on all the above, based on the readings provided and on their own investigations. More specifically, we shall take as examples of foreign policy and security considerations areas that lie on the periphery of the Europe of 25. Here too maps will help us.

Best known is the question of Turkey: should Turkey become a full member of the EU? Are geostrategic and political considerations paramount, and sufficient to overcome cultural and economic qualms?

Of more interest perhaps is our second, broader example: some of the immediate neighbours of the EU to its east and south, for which the EU has recently decided to establish its European Neighbourhood Policy. Previously the EU had launched the Barcelona Process, which concentrates on the south alone. Since its beginning in 1995, the Barcelona Process has been variously described as ineffectual, as dangerous, and as essential to peace and security.

Some Further Reading:

Dannreuther, Roland, (ed), European Union Foreign and Security Policy: Towards a Neighbourhood Strategy, Routledge, London, 2004.

Dehousse, Franklin, Philippe Vincent, Les Relations extérieures de l’Union européenne, College d’Europe, 1994.

Dessus, Sebastian, et al. (eds), Towards Arab and Euro-Mediterranean Regional Integration, Paris OECD, 2001.

Haifaa, A. Jawad, Euro - Arab Relations, Ithaca Press Reading, 1992.

Holland, Martin, European Union Common Foreign Policy, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 1995.

Ludlow, Peter, (ed.), Europe and the Mediterranean, Brassey, UK, 1994.

Norgaard, Ole, Thomas Pedersen, Nikolaj Petersen, (eds.), The European Community in World Politics, Pinter, London, 1993.

Nutall, Simon, European Foreign Policy, OUP, Oxford, 2000.

Sedelmeier, Ulrich, European Union Enlargement, Identity and the analysis of European Foreign Policy, University Institute, 2002.

Smith, Michael, Europe’s Foreign and Security Policy: The Institutionalization of Co operation, CUP, 2004.

Stirk, Peter M. R., A History of European Integration since 1914, Pinter, London 1996. 

Other Sources of Information

European Journal of International Relations

European Report / Europolitique

Foreign Affairs

Journal of European Integration

The Economist

Le Monde Diplomatique

CFSP web site